Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1887-03-18

sect annoyances winging their way out from
the culinary department.. If the grace OF
God be not in the heart of the house,
keeper, she cannot maintain her equlii-
brium. The men come home at night and
hear the story Of these annoyances, and say,
ooh! these home troubles are very little
things" They are small, small as wasps, but
they sting. Martha's nerves were all UNI
strung when she rushed in asking Christ to
reprove Mary, and there are tens of thou
sands of women who are dying, stung to
death by these pestiferous domestic annoy
ances. The Lord sent the hornet
These small insect disturbances may also
come in the shape Of business irritations.
There are men here who went through 1867
and Sept. "a, 1869, without losing their bal
ance, who are every day endorsed by little
annoyances-a clerks i'll manners, OF a blot
of ink on a bill of lading, or the extravaganza
of a partner who overdraws his account, or
the underselling by business rival or the
whispering of business condolences in the
street, OF the making of some little bad debt
which was against your Judgment, just to
please somebody else. 1t is not the panics
that kill the merchants. Panics come only
once in ten OF twenty years 1t is the constant
din of these everyday annoyances which is
sending so many of our best merchants into
nervous dyspepsia and paralysis and the
grave When our national commerce fell flat
on its face, these men stood up and felt almost
defiant; but their life is giving way now
under the swarm of these pestiferous annoy
ances The Lord sent the hornet
have noticed in the history of some of nv
congregation that their annoyances are null
hplying, and they have hundred where they
used to have ten. The naturalist tells us that
a wasp sometimes has a family of 10000
wasps, and it does seem as If every annoyance
of your life bred million. By the help of
God to-day want to show you the other side
The hornet is of no use? Oh, yes! The natural
lists tell us they are very important in the
worlds economy; they kill spiders and they
clear the atmosphere; and really believe God
sends the annoyance OF our life upon us to XIII
the spiders of the soul and to clear the atmos-
phere of our skies. These annoyances are
sent on us, think, to wake us up from our
lethargy. There is nothing that makes man
so lively as nest OF yellow Jackets and I
think that thSse annoyanees are intended to
persuade us of the fact that thisis not world
for us to stop in. If we had q bed Of every
thing that was attractive and soft ans sas r
what would we want of heaven Y III ssiIrk
that the hollow tree sends the hornet, il you
think the devil sends the hornet I want TO
correct your opinion The Lord sents the
hornet.
Then I also think these annoyances Gomez
upon us to culture our patience. In the J
gymnasium you find upright parallel bars
bars with holes over each other for pegs to be
put in. Then the gymnast takes a peg in
each hand and he begins to climb, one inch at
time, or two inches, and getting his strength
cultured, reaches after while the ceiling.
And it seems to me that these annoyances in
life are moral gymnasium, each worry a
peg by which we are to climb higher and
higher in Christian attainment We all love
to see patience but it cannot be cultured in
fair weather. 1t is child of the storm If
you had everything desirable and there was
nothing more to get. what would you want
with patience? The only time to culture it is
when you are slandered and cheated, and
sick and half dead "Oh," you say, off 1
only had the circumstances of some well TODD
man would be patient too" You might as
well say, eff it were not for this water /
would swim;" or, II could shoot this gun if it
were not for the caps"
When you stand chin deep in annoyances is
the time for you to swim out toward the
great headlands of Christian attainment, and
when your life is loaded to the muzzle with
repulsive annoyances-that is the time to
will ever burn out of us the cinker and the.
Stag. have formed this theory in regard to
small annoyances and vexations: 1t takes Just
So much trouble to fit us for usefulness and
for heaven. The only question is, whether
we shall take it in the bulk, or pulverized and
granulated Here is one man who takes ii
in the bulk. His back is broken, or
his eyesight put out, or some other
awful calamity befalls him; while the.
vast majority of people take the thing
piecemeal. Which way would you rather
have it? Of course in peacemeal Better
have five aching teeth than one broken jaw
Better ten fly blisters than an amputation
Better twenty squalls than one cyclone. There
may be difference of opinion as to allopathy
and homeopathy; but in this matter OF
trouble 7 like homeopathic doses. small
pellets Of &U1loYauee ataoF than some knock
down dose d hanitv Tylstssssl II IT,
thunderbolt give US the hornet.
If you have bank you would great deal
rather that fifty men should come in with
checks less than hundred dollars than to
have two depositors come in the same day
each wanting his ten thousand dollars La
this latter case, you cough and look down
the floor and up at the ceiling before you loos
into the safe. Now, my friends, would YOU
not rather have these small drafts of annoy
ance on your bank of faith than some all
staggering demand upon your endurance? i
want to make you so strong that you will not
surrender to small annoyences. In the VIII
lage of Hamelin tradition says, there was an
invasion of rats, and these small creatures al
most devoured the town and threatened the
lives of the population, and the story is that
piper came out one day and played a very
sweet tune, and all the veri,lin followed him ).
followed him to the banks Of she IVES
and then he blew bast and nj aa
in and disappeared forever
OScalrseHsn1s Is fable, utib sssisn eelAA
on the sweet flute of the Gospel, draw fort
all the nibbling and bulrowing annoyance
of your life, and play them down into TIE
depths forever. How many touches did thu
artist give to his picture of "Cotopaxi." Or
his Heart of the Andess' I suppose about
$4,000 touches. 1 hear the canvas saying
"Why do you keep me trembling with thai
pencil so long? Why don't you put it on il
one dash?" "No," says the artist, II know
how to make painting; it will take $4,000 OF
these touches" And want you, my friends
to understand that it is these 10000 annoy
ances which, under God, are making up these
picture of your life, to be hung at last in the
galleries Of heaven, fit for angels to look at
God knows how to make a picture.
I go into sculptors studio, and see hin
shaping a statue. He has a chisel in ore
hand and mallet in the other, and he give
very gentle stroke-click, click, clckl !
say, "Why don't you strike harder" ooh
he replies, "that would shatter the statlli
can't do it that way; must do it tli,
way" So he works on, and aftera while a9
features come out, and everybody that en- atS
the studio is charmed and fascinated II IA
God has your soul under process of q, ~
opment, and it is the little annoyances I'd
vexations of life that are chiseling out yags
immortal nature. 1t is click, click, click
wonder why some great providence does ag5
come and with one stroke prepare you Il
heaven. All, no; God says that is not ths
way And so he keeps on by strokes of littls
vexations, until at last you shall be glaG
spectacle for angels and for men,
You know that a large fortune may be
spent in small change, and vast amount al &
moral character may go away in small deg,t:
ton. 1t is the little troubles of life that ar.
having more effect upon you than III
great ones. A swarm of locusts will kig
grain field sooner than the incursions of the